Monday, January 23, 2017

REMINDER: S. B. Woo has stepped down from the presidency of 80-20 PAC, although he is still the president of 80-20 Educational Foundation

About the 2016 Election

Hillary Clinton (HC) had such real and presumed advantages over Donald Trump (DT). Click here to read Part (1) and (2) about what the advantages were and why many didn't work out. Even though the election was over, looking back at the facts (mixed with some opinion) can help us understand America and American elections.

Why didn't the Overwhelming media endorsements for HC Work?

The HC/DT endorsements ratio was 500/27. Shouldn't that have had a huge impact? Apparently not. Why?

1) HC benefited from the fact that the media intellectuals disliked DT intensely. Voters sensed that media bias. So the endorsements didn't carry as much weight.

2) Most of the media were into "identity politics" just like HC. They favored diversity over qualifications when it came to hiring or admissions to schools and colleges. Such over-emphasis has lessened American voters' respect for the media.

Why Didn't the Overwhelming Endorsement of HC by the Top Political Leaders of BOTH parties Work?

All past and present Democratic officials endorsed HC. Many of the most prominent past and present Republican top officials rejected or refused to endorse DT. In effect, the top political leaders of BOTH parties had endorsed HC. Why didn't that work?

Most politicians knew that endorsements by famous political leaders helped in their fundraising efforts. However, such endorsements were never very effective in getting votes for the candidate. Ordinary voters didn't read or cared about a candidate's press releases which touted such endorsements.

HC's Weaknesses

Every candidate has pluses and minuses. HC's strength was that she was very well respected by elected officials of both parties -- being known as a hardworking colleague who knew the issues, was willing to discuss compromises, and share credit. Her weakness was that she was a very poor campaigner, and yet ever confident of her imminent victory. She lost 2 of her 3 national campaigns in-spite-of huge initial advantages over all 3 rival candidates.

1) In the 2008 Dem. primary, everyone said it was "her campaign to lose." At the early stages, her campaign was lavishly pretentious. At the end, she lost it to Obama, who was almost an unknown initially.

2) In the 2016 Dem. primary, she faced a real unknown, Sen.Sanders. At the end, if it were not for the unshakable loyalty of her 500+ Super Delegates - all elected officials - she came close to losing that one as well. The final pledged delegates ratio between HC/Sanders was 1/0.84.

3) In the 2016 General Election, she was the overwhelming odds on candidate to win over DT. She enjoyed huge real and presumed advantages. Her campaign planned to have fireworks over the Hudson river on election night, costing $7 million, according to DT. But she lost that campaign too.

In part (4), we'll ask if HC had make good political decisions. Please don't construe these e-newsletters as favoring one or the other former candidates. The election was over. The real purpose is to help AsAms understand America and American politics.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

REMINDER: S. B. Woo has stepped down from the presidency of 80-20 PAC, although he is still the president of 80-20 Educational Foundation.

Did the outcome of the 2016 election surprise you? Understand why.

The 2016 election is over. Please don't misconstrue the info presented as plugging for one or the other of the former candidates. Knowing these facts could help us better understand America and American elections.

Last Friday, I presented this talk to a group of prominent retired senior professionals, including many former government officials. Both facts and opinions were very well-received. Part (1) of this series was on H. Clinton's (HC's) real advantages over D. Trump (DT). Part (2) is on her presumed advantages, and how the presumed advantages didn't match up with the reality, seen via NYT's exit poll.

Presumed HC Advantages When Compared With Reality

1) The possibility of electing the historic first woman President would induce over-whelming women support for HC.

Truth: Women voted more for Obama in 2012 (55%) than for HC in 2016 (54%).

Truth: Blacks, Hispanics and Asians all supported HC by 5 to 8 pts. than they supported Obama in 2012.

2012(Obama/Romney/Others) 2016(HC/DT/Others)Blacks 93/07 88/08/4

Hispanics 71/27 65/29/4

Asians 73/26/1 65/29/4

Why Didn't HC's Real Advantage in Money Raised work?

HC had almost a 2 to 1 advantage over DT in money raised. But it didn't win the election for her. Why?

Of the $1.4 billion she'd raised, only $102 million or 7% came from donations of $200 or less. In comparison, Obama raised $214 million from donations of $200 or less in 2012, more than2 times more. Let's say that the average small donation is $102, then HC has 1 million donors who are ordinary citizens, while Obama had about 2 million such ordinary donors. The enthusiasm of such small donors is very important to winning an election. Most politicians have valued that. Some campaigns were willing to lose money in order to raise this kind of small donations.

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In the next few EF e-newsletters, we'll continue to explore why HC didn't win in-spite of all the real advantages.

S. B. Woo

President and a volunteer for the past 18 years80-20 Educational Foundation, Inc, a 501 C-3 organization,http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/index.php

PS: Acknowledging great supporters who responded so generously to my "Swan Song" appeal to raise money for 80-20 PAC. About $32,000 was raised. Besides the ones already acknowledged, there are also

Alec Y. Chang, Pound Ridge, Ny $2,500

Chen Chen & Tuohui Zhong, Greensboro, NC $1,000

Jerry J Zhang & Weili Fan*, Dana point, CA $ 500

Louisa and Benjamin Chu, Stonybrook, NY $ 500

James and Constance Liu Chen, $ 500

Billy and Lydia Yeh, Coral Gables, FL $ 500

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all the other donors whose names are not listed, owing to space considerations.

*Weili Fan is the author of a wonderful Chinese book about the noble but sad lives of a mixed couple who masterfully translated the "Dreams of the Red Chamber" and many other Chinese classics into English. The book brought tears to my eyes many times, and I am not such an emotional person.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

REMINDER: S. B. Woo has stepped down from the presidency of 80-20 PAC, although he is still the president of 80-20 Educational Foundation.

Shocking Facts You May NOT Know About the 2016 Election

The following facts (NOT opinion) about the 2016 election may be shocking since most people didn't know it, to my best knowledge . These facts could be educational in helping AsAm understand how elections are won and lost.

These facts are all referenced. They are from a talk I'll give on coming Friday to a FL group of which I am a member. The members are composed of generals, one admiral, many CIA officials, diplomats, medical doctors, physicists, and other professionals with "distinguished" careers, who have retired.

To whet your appetite, here is a "table of contents" plus the details of part (a) of item 1: "HC's Incredible real & presumed advantages in the election." HC and DT stand for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump respectively.

How could HC possibly lose??? For clues, look for EF's e-newsletters in the next days and weeks. They may help you to understand America and American election of the modern days.

Help Recruit to Get Matching Funds

41 big Corporations will match donations to EF. If you work for one of these companies, please recruit your AsAm colleagues to financially support 80-20 EF. $1 from you or your colleagues will mean $2 to $4 dollars to 80-20's war chest. To donate, click here.